Fruit Tree basics - Podcast

Audio podcast on soundcloud: Fruit Trees

https://soundcloud.com/stacia-trapp/fruit-trees-101-stacia-t

Choosing of Your Fruit Trees: Have you thought about their Pollination needs?

Now that we have considered our zone/location, and what our specific soil and sun exposure may be we can now start looking at trees that would grow in the area we have in mind.

For us we picked out: apple, cherry, peach, pear, and plum tree varieties. But when we looked into buying them we realized we forgot to consider their pollination needs. Each tree would need a second tree of its kind for cross-pollination. So instead of 5 trees we now would need 10! That is a lot of fruit to harvest once the trees reach maturity. 

After looking at our space we had picked out for our trees we decided not to get the plum trees as we didn’t think we would have room for 10 but 8 would work.

Now that we were thinking about cross-pollination we realized if we were going to get 2 of each we wanted to be sure and get 2 different varieties of each (like Bing and a Rainier cherry tree) we wanted this not only for a variety of flavors but also for to help spread out the harvest load.  

This then lead us to realizing that each variety would have a different blooming time as well so we would need to make sure the trees we picked out would have somewhat overlapping blooms so that they would fertilize each other’s blooms, as that was the reason we needed 2 of each fruit tree.

What we thought would be an easy “just pick the fruit tree you like to eat” proses had a lot more research then we were prepared for.  

Soil Type, Sun Exposure, and Growth

               There are 3 basic types of soil (sand, silt/loamy, and clay) and from there they are broken down into lots more categories. Once you know your soil type you can then apply this information to what trees can survive in your location. And it might give you some insight to if you will have wet ground or dry.

You will also need to know this so you can plan watering times or know if a tree would drowned in the location you want to plant. It is important to have some insight into water patterns in your area, if you live in a wet area that has flooding often or standing water you probably won’t have much success with a tree that prefers dry ground. If you are buying for a new lot of land owner and are anxious to get started planting right away maybe ask your neighbors about this.

                When you consider where you will be planting your tree(s) also consider if your location will have lots of sun or very little. Most fruit trees will need at least half a day of sunlight if you want the good quality fruit. Planting them in a shaded area will hinder their fruit production when it is time to harvest.

                When you are considering the sun exposure your ideal planting location has don’t forget to consider what that location will be like in 5-20 years. Your young tree won’t stay 3-5 feet tall it will grow up to 15-20 feet maybe more and other plant around it will be growing as well. You wouldn’t want to plant your fruit tree next to a fast growing maple that in time will block out the sun from your fruit tree.

                When we picked our trees size mattered, I am terrified of heights so we chose dwarf and semi-dwarf trees. They wouldn’t grow as tall as a normal fruit tree would and we also would have more room for more variety of trees because we could plant them closer together. Have you considered what tree size you want or how many trees you want to plant?  

Know Your Zone

 You may want a banana tree but it may not grow in your area. Some tools are helpful to guide you to what trees are best for you and your area. When you are looking into buying a tree you will see that all trees have growing zones.  Do you know what zone you are in? You will need to find out if a banana tree can grow near you. And if it can’t, what trees would?  This is a link to arborday foundation’s zone look up.  http://shop.arborday.org/content.aspx?page=zone-lookup .

For more detailed information about what trees work in your area you may want to use their “Best Tree Finder: Tree Wizard” https://www.arborday.org/shopping/trees/treewizard/intro.cfm however this second link will ask for much more than your location because location is not the only thing to consider when you are considering what tree will grow in your area.  In this blog we are focusing on what is best for Zone 5. Or for those of you like me that live in WI, we will be talking about what grows in the South/East half of the state. 


The below map is a very detailed map if you are looking for more specific information then the 10 zones (in the US) that the arbor day foundation link will provide.